Paradigmatic Relations

Semiotics, saussure, and paradigmatic delations

'Paradigmatic relation' is closely related to semiotics. Semiotics is about how meanings are produced by signs. The word semeion means 'sign' in greek.

Any sign is made up of two parts, a concept and sound-image. We do not mean a sound like a dog's bark, but the sensory impression the word gives us. Signs explain the whole concept of the word and the meanings we attach to it. Language is then considered by Saussurean linguistics to be a self-enclosed system. Saussure replaces word 'concept' with signified and 'sound-image' with signifier. The word 'tree' has two parts: it is a sound (/ tri: /) and it is an idea (whatever you think of when you hear the word 'tree'. The sound (/ tri: /) is the signifier and the idea-in-your-head is the signified.

Fig. 1 - A sign is made up of two parts.

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) is considered the founder of structuralist linguistics. Structuralist linguistics analyses the structure of language, and how meaning is embedded in words and sentences.

In his studies, Saussure offered three main ideas:

• A distinction between langue (the abstract language) and parole (language we use in everyday life).
• Language is arbitrary. We live in a global world, which means different languages use different words when referring to the same object. For example, in English we say dog, the French say chien, and Russians say собака. There is no reason why abstract concepts in language should be fixed.
• Signs gain meaning from their relationship with other signs. This leads to syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations.

Another way to think about signs is this picture:

Fig. 2 - In English, this means "this is not a pipe."

You may know this, but this is not an actual pipe. We have randomly assigned meaning to the painting of a pipe. But it is not a pipe. It is a painting of a pipe. Magritte's painting subverts our expectations about objects and their names.

The choice of signs and their arrangement in a sentence is crucial to understanding language analysis and semiotic relationships.

Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations

It may be easy to get these two terms mixed up...Let's take a look at the differences between the two!

Syntagmatic relations

Syntagmatic relation refers to the relationship between words in a sentence. Any alterations to the word combination can change the meaning of the sentence:

1. Paul is bathing a dog.
2. A dog is bathing Paul.

Both sentences have the same components but in a different order. In other words, the syntagmatic relation explains how the word's position in a sentence determines the meaning of the sentence.

Paul + is bathing + a dog

A dog + is bathing + Paul

A Syntagm is a 'linguistic unit' in a relationship with other such units in a particular sequence. Individual syntagms are the building blocks of text. Syntagms are grouped to form words, words are grouped to form phrases, and phrases are grouped to form sentences, etc. Paragraphs and chapters are considered a syntagm of words, and the grouping is sometimes called a chain.

Paradigmatic relations

Paradigmatic relation involves the differentiation and selection of words in a sentence. Look at this sentence:

The | man | cried

We can see how words can act as building blocks that make up the sentence. However, since paradigmatic relations involve substitutions and selections, we can replace a word in the sentence to make different combinations or meanings.

The | man | sang

Or:

The | man | died

Or even:

The | boy | cried.

Paradigmatic relationships are sets of associated words (paradigms) which are all members of some defining category.

Paradigmatic relations examples

Below are some more examples of paradigmatic relations:

As you can see, there are several possible variations of 'The beautiful woman buys the bread':

• The old lady buys some cakes.
• The handsome man sold some vegetables.
• The tall boy is eating a hotdog.

We can conclude that:

• Paradigmatic relation describes a substitution relationship between words with the same word class. The substitution occurs on a vertical axis, as shown in the diagrams above and below.
• Syntagmatic relation is about the relationship/position between words in a sentence. The syntagmatic relation occurs on the horizontal axis.

Paradigmatic relation:

Let's take 'The beautiful woman buys some brioche'.

• The beautiful woman can choose to buy some bread or chicken instead of brioche.
• Brioche, bread, and chicken are parts of a paradigm of food that the beautiful woman can buy.
• The items in a paradigm share some unifying quality, and the paradigm is the set or category they belong to (food).
• Some words from the sentence can also be substituted vertically: 'An unattractive (antonym) lady (synonymy) buys some bread (hyponymy)'.

Syntagmatic relation:

Let's take 'That handsome man ate some chicken'.

• The combination of 'that handsome man + ate + some chicken' forms a syntagmatic relationship.
• If the word position is changed, it also changes the meaning of the sentence, eg 'Some chicken ate the handsome man'.
• Furthermore, the linear relationship also occurs at phrase-level: it is 'handsome + man', not 'handsome + woman'.

What are the different types of paradigmatic relations?

There are different types of paradigmatic relations. From the examples above, we can see that paradigmatic relations involve substituting a word for another word from the same word class, either with a similar meaning (synonymy), an opposite meaning (antonymy), or a-kind-of meaning (hyponymy).

Synonymy

Synonymy is when words have similar meanings. The meaning of A is similar to B (A ≈ B).

Some examples of synonyms are:

• I want to live in a big country house ≈ I want to live in a huge country house.
• It was a difficult decision to make ≈ It was a hard decision to make.
• The food was excellent ≈ The food was great.

Synonyms can be divided into two subtypes:

1. Absolute synonyms: the meaning and grammatical function of the synonymous words are exactly the same, eg airport and aerodrome.
2. Partial synonyms: the meaning of the synonymous words are only similar. Partial synonyms can differ in collocation, register, and regional/social variation.

Be careful when doing word substitution with synonymy. Not every synonymous word fits in all situations (partial synonyms). You have to consider some factors, such as the context, relationship between words, register, regional variation, etc.

• 'China has the world's largest population' vs. 'China has the world's most gigantic population' → differ in collocation.
• 'We will commence the construction next month' vs. 'We will start the construction next month' → differ in register (formal-informal).
• 'I'll make some chocolate biscuits for Christmas' vs. 'I'll make some chocolate cookies for Christmas' → differ in regional usage (British English vs. American English).

Antonymy

Antonymy is when words have opposite meanings. The meaning of A is the opposite of B (A↔B).

Some examples of antonyms are:

• I want to live in a big country house ↔ I want to live in a small country house
• It was a difficult decision to make ↔ It was an easy decision to make
• The food was excellent ↔ The food was terrible

Antonyms can be divided into three subtypes:

1. Gradable antonyms define words that are at the opposite ends of a spectrum with some gradation in between the two extremes, eg hot - cold.
2. Complementary antonyms explain an either-or relationship between opposite word pairs, eg true - false.
3. Relational/converse antonyms show a dependent relationship between the opposite words, eg husband-wife.

Hyponymy (hypernym & co-hyponym)

Hyponymy refers to a super- and subordination relationship between words. A is a kind of B (A ↑ ↓ B).

Some examples of hyponyms are:

• Sweep, wipe, and scrub (hyponyms) are kinds of (to) clean (hypernym).
• Red, blue, and yellow (hyponyms) are kinds of colours (hypernym).
• Poodle, labrador, and pomeranian (hyponyms) are kinds of dogs (hypernym).

If you want to keep the sentence meaning like its original, substitute the word with its hypernym (superordinate of a word) and not with its co-hyponym (hyponyms on the same hierarchical level). For instance,

I have to babysit my sister's poodle this weekend.

• Meaning kept: substitute poodle with dog (hypernym of poodle) → 'I have to babysit my sister's dog this weekend'. The meaning is not exactly the same, but it generalizes the category.
• Meaning changed: substitute poodle with labrador (co-hyponym of poodle) → 'I have to babysit my sister's labrador this weekend'. The meaning is different.

With this in mind, the sentence 'The beautiful woman buys some brioche' can be re-written in a variety of meaningful ways. By using or we can create a range of sentences: